BMC research notes
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Observational Study
Severely deranged vital signs as triggers for acute treatment modifications on an intensive care unit in a low-income country.
Critical care saves lives of the young with reversible disease. Little is known about critical care services in low-income countries. In a setting with a shortage of doctors the actions of the nurse bedside are likely to have a major impact on the outcome of critically ill patients with rapidly changing physiology. Identification of severely deranged vital signs and subsequent treatment modifications are the basis of modern routines in critical care, for example goal directed therapy and rapid response teams. This study assesses how often severely deranged vital signs trigger an acute treatment modification on an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Tanzania. ⋯ This study suggests that severely deranged vital signs are common and infrequently lead to acute treatment modifications on an ICU in a low-income country. There may be potential to improve outcome if nurses are guided to administer acute treatment modifications by using a vital sign directed approach. A prospective study of a vital sign directed therapy protocol is underway.
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Exposure to medical ionizing radiation has been increasing over the past decades and constitutes the largest contributor to overall radiation exposure in the general population. While occupational exposures are generally monitored by national radiation protection agencies, individual data on medical radiation exposure for the general public are not regularly collected. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of assessing lifetime medical ionizing radiation exposure from diagnostic and therapeutic procedures retrospectively and prospectively within the framework of the German National Cohort study. ⋯ The assessment of more recent medical examinations seems in the German National Cohort study feasible, whereas lifetime medical radiation exposure appears difficult to assess via self-reports. Health insurance data may be a potentially useful tool for the assessment of individual data on medical radiation exposure both retrospectively and prospectively.